The Dark Rogue
by Shadoweye12
Summary: Blackfire is rescued by a powerful shadow user from execution. The Titans now need to capture both Blackfire and this new shadow user before more damage can be done. However they may need a little bit of help.
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone, right now I'm writing a story more as an experiment for how my writing works for other stories that I have formed in my head, this is the first one in result of that experimental story so far, and there is a second but no third, I'm getting off topic. Anyway, I don't read the Comics for Teen titans so, for any specific changes that occured only in the comics I wouldn't know about them so don't flame me for that. I've only seen the cartoon, its cheaper. Oh and one last thing, if you don't like the story, don't feel shy about telling me. But however if you want to flame me about it, all I have to say to that is, "shove it".

anyway enjoy the story.

Rouge of Darkness

Chapter 1

The Rouge

A ship silently glided above Earth, the ship, a transportation ship, for captured prisoners scheduled for either long term sentences, or execution continued its long voyage to another system byond Earth. The dark halls inside the ship only echoing with the foot steps of patrol guards.

"Man I'm bored" one of the five guards complained.

"Stop it, we have to transport the prisoner for execution, and we can't let our guard down" a second guard said.

"Who's going to go through the trouble of rescuing that nusiance?" the first continued.

"That scoundrel might not have friends, but the one's charging her for execution does however have many enemies, it would stand to reason that someone would free her just to irritate that organization." the second guard explained.

"Who in their right mind would pick a fight with that kind of group, I mean, that's almost like picking a fight with the Justice League." a third guard noted.

"Yeah, but serving justice means you get some of the worst enemies too." the second guard continued. "However what I like about this organization is they aren't afraid to kill those who disturb the peace".

"Sounds like proper justice to me" the fourth said rather unconcerned for their situation.

"I'm still bored though" the first guard continued to complain.

CLATTER!

a small clattering sound echoed from the dark hall ahead of them.

"Hey wait, what happened to the lights, all the lights are susposed to be on" the first guard said drawing an electrostick.

"No idea, maybe they burnt out" the second suggested as the rest of the guards drew their electrosticks.

step...step...step

dull sounding footsteps then began to echo throughout the hall.

"WHO'S THERE!" the second guard cried trying to get the attention of the unknown being.

Slowly a young male emerged from the dark hall ahead, his body clad completley in black clothing, black cargo pants, dark grey hiking boots, and a heavy black canvas jacket. He stood roughly 5'11" his eyes were a bloody red, and his hair was jet black. His skin was a healthy peach color, and he looked like he didn't weigh much more than 150 pounds, and couldn't have been older than 17. But what caught the guards attention most was, the confident, and fearless face that the boy was sporting.

"Looking for me?" the boy said in a calm and unconcerned voice.

"How Did You Get On Board!" the second guard demanded.

"I just walked up the ramp" the boy answered obviously beginning to play with them.

"Well, you shouldn't be here, we're going to have to hold you in confinement until further notice" the second guard said as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

"One last thing" the boy said holding up a hand signalling for the guard to hold on a second.

"What is it?" the second guard asked.

The boy just lowered his hand until he had all five fingers pointed at the guards, and then the boy uttered one word. "Pierce".

Long black tendrils suddenly shot out of the boys fingers and shot straight towards the five guards. The guards didn't even have enough time to flinch before the black tendrils skewered their bodies. The boy smiled and he withdrew his tendrils, upon exiting their bodies the guards began to bleed profusly, a couple dropped unconcious or dead immediately.

"The rest of you have ten seconds to call for help before you pass on" the boy said unfazed by his actions.

The second guard who managed to stay alive long enough to do so grabbed his radio. "I-in-intruder, s-second fl-floor, b-b-back, u-up now" the man managed to get out before he collapsed on the floor.

BREEP! BREEP!

An alarm signalled causing several more guards to stir in reation to their new intruder. Grabbing advanced looking assault rifles they raced down to the second floor. Upon opening the door to the second floor they saw the young boy walking towards them wearing the same look on his face.

"HALT OR WE WILL SHOOT!" the leader of the new squad declared.

"Don't care" the boy replied as he continued to walk towards the line of twenty or so guards.

"FIRE!" the squad leader cried not wasting time to reason with the boy.

BLAM!

All twenty guards fired one shot at the same time, the bullets tore through the boy's body like hot knives through a block of butter, the boy's body tore and seemed to explode in parts where the bullets exited.

"Target hit sir" one of the armed guards said.

"Good work men" the squad leader said.

"Is that all?" the boy then suddenly asked.

"WHAT!" the squad leader cried at seeing the boy continue smiling and talking back like he barely recieved a scratch. "HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!" The squad leader cried.

"Because you haven't done enough damage" the boy explained.

"FIRE!FIRE!" the squad commander cried as the squad began to empty their clips into the boy.

RATATATATATAT!

The squad finished emptying their clips into the boy, the boy was nothing more than a shredded stick of pepperoni. However the smile he wore didn't fade.

"I said you didn't do enough damage, however I never said that the bullets were doing damage to me" the boy said, as the air and ground behind the boy began to darken into a black haze. The haze seemed drawn to the boy, and then the squad then realized that the haze was becoming part of the boy repairing the damage they had done. The squad was all watching in shock as the boy's body slowly began to repair, no, reform itself as if he wasn't solid material to begin with. The squad leader quickly stumbled for his radio.

"S-S-SOMEONE, C-CALL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE!" the squad leader cried, and he only saw the boy lunge at him and his squad, black tendrils stretching from his fingers as he rushed them.

**On the Bridge**

"WHAT'S GOING ON!" the captain cried into the radio to the guard captain that was sent to the second floor, however all he got was several screams and cries of agony.

"What's happening on the second floor?" the co-pilot asked horrified.

"I don't know, but let's see where this intruder is going" the captain said as he turned to a screen in the centre of the control panel in front of them, and turned it on, revealing the stairway at the end of the second floor where the guards were sent. They watched momentarily as they witnessed a young boy making his way down to the third and bottom floor.

"HE'S HEADING TO THE BOTTOM FLOOR!" the co-pilot cried.

"THAT'S WHERE THE PRISONER IS!" the captain cried. "I'M CALLING THE JUSTICE LEAGUE!" the captain then made a grab for the radio.

**On the Third Floor**

"So this is the cellar" the boy observed a sturdy seven foot tall, five foot wide security door in front of him. "Such a flimsy piece of trash"

The boy held up one finger and a long black tendril protruded from it, and the boy then raised his finger above his head.

WHISH! WHISH!

With two strokes from the boys finger, the heavy steel door was split into two pieces as the two sided door was sliced clean off it's hinges. The boy walked into the cellar his eyes quickly adjusting to the dimly lit room as he had been walking in lighted halls up until this point. His eyes adjust and he continued in deeper into the room and quickly stopped finding himself in front of a single jail cell, inside the jail cell was a shackled Blackfire. The boy eyed her as she bore the signs of mistreatment, the cuffs digging into her skin rubbing her wrists raw. With all the clamor Blackfire apparently woke with a start to see what had entered her cellar, as the boy drew closer to her cell her eyes widened in fear and skurried to the far rear of the cell. The boy could see the fear in the girl's eyes, she must've gone through some horrifying moments to be reduced to such a state. The boy raised his finger again and swung it twice severing the tops and bottoms of the jail bars.

CLANG!

The jail bars clattered to the floor and the boy walked into the cell and approached Blackfire. Blackfire tucked herself deeper into a corner until she couldn't go further, the boy stood above her observing her. The boy then raised his finger again and swung it twice.

WHISH! WHISH!

Blackfire had held up her cuffed hands in preparation for the deathblow, however a weight was suddenly lifted off her hands and a loud clang hit the floor.

CLANG!

Blackfire looked down to see that her cuffs had been cut from her hands and clattered to the floor. Blackfire just looked at her wrists as if she had never seen them before in her life, after a few moments she turned her attention to the man infront of her. "W-who are you?" Blackfire asked trying to keep herself as composed in front of him as much as possible to spare her pride.

The boy only held out a hand towards her, with a slight smirk on his face. "I am Shadow" the boy answered.

Blackfire only turned her attention back and forth between the boy calling himself Shadow, and his hand. "What do you want?" Blackfire asked feeling herself grow a little bolder.

"What I want is minor in comparison to what I'm going to give you" Shadow answered.

"You offer me my freedom? For what in exchange?" Blackfire asked sounding distrusting.

"Only the satisfaction that I proved, that it wasn't your time to die yet" the boy answered still smiling a rather erie smile.

"So you some kind of fortune teller?" Blackfire asked.

"A fortune teller doesn't kill or destroy to make a prophecy true" Shadow answered. "I would suggest that you hurry, the Justice League might be here soon"

Blackfire quickly casting her fears and suspision aside after hearing that, quickly grabbed Shadow's hand and began to hoist herself up. However with weeks of lack of exercise, food, and mistreatment from her captors Blackfire only collapsed on her own weight. Shadow however was quick to react, catching Blackfire in mid fall. Blackfire quickly realized her situation and only looked back at Shadow with embarassment. Shadow only smiled back as he then picked Blackfire up bridal style and then muttered only one sentence.

"Dark Eruption" Shadow muttered and then everything went black.

**Meanwhile just outside the transport ship**

Superman was flying through space in response to the distress call they recieved from the ship, the ship was growing larger as he flew towards it, he saw sections of the hull blown open bellowing smoke and debris, the engines were on fire which in space isn't a good thing, only wondering what could have caused this Superman quickly flew closer to try and save anyone on board.

BOOM!

Suddenly the ship was engulfed in a black sphere and the base of the ship blew open, Superman only watched horrified as the ship slowly ripped apart by some kind of black explosion. Superman watched as several bits of debris accompanied by chunks of the dark energy that destroyed the ship.

'Is there anyone left alive?' superman quickly asked himself as he rushed towards the core of the eruption looking hopelessly for anyone left alive.

**The next day on Earth**

"STARFIRE!" an excited Robin cried looking for his friend in the large headquarters.

"I'm here" Starfire announced herself as she rounded a corner in response to Robin's yelling. "What's the matter?" Starfire asked rather dully rubbing her red eyes from the crying, she was still trying to get over her sisters charges and sentence to execution.

"Look at this" Robin said calming down a bit and handed Starfire a newspaper.

**_Prisoner Transport Ship Destroyed: The Criminal Blackfire Has Escaped_**

Finding quick excitement in this news quickly speed read the news report, her eyes growing wider the more she read. "Friend Robin, is it all true?" Starfire asked.

"In both a good and bad way, yes it is all true" Robin answered. It was good that Starfire would be able to smile again, she worried a lot for her sister. It was unfortunate that a criminal had to get away in this process, but this time maybe the Justice league would catch her and then they wouldn't have to execute Blackfire.

"How did she escape?" Starfire asked eyes glued to the pages of the paper.

"We don't know most of the evidence was destroyed in a fire and a weird explosion" Robin answered.

"But then how do they know that sister escaped?" Starfire asked.

"They never found her body, and her cuffs where cut off as well as her cell was broken open" Robin answered. "Unfortunately twenty plus guards and transportsmen were killed in the process, the confusing thing is no one knows exactly what happened, we can't even tell if Blackfire is even responsible for the destruction" Robin explained.

"Friend Robin did you say that the cuffs and the cell was "cut" open?" Starfire asked.

"Yeah that's what the justice league reported, why?" Robin asked becoming confused rather quickly, he never got a good look at anything let alone was recieving much information save the newspaper, so he couldn't use any of those famous detective skills to help anything.

"They were never melted in any way?" Starfire asked.

"No" Robin answered he was beginning to see where this was going, the bars and cuffs as stated in the newspaper where cleanly cut, Blackfire couldn't have cut herself free so cleanly thus the only way to explain this was. "Someone broke her free!" Robin exclaimed.

"MY SISTER HAS A FRIEND!" Starfire cried with joy hugging the newspaper tightly.

"Um, Starfire, I don't think that's the point here" Robin sweatdropped as he watched Starfire break to a new excitement level.

"Um, hey guys" Beastboy suddenly rounded the corner.

"Yeah what is it Beastboy?" Robin asked as Starfire's head was still so high in the clouds she couldn't even tell what was happening.

"Yeah, the Justice League is calling us via video communication, I think we should all be there" Beastboy said.

"Good call" Robin replied turning to Starfire. "As soon as I can bring her back down to earth" Robin sighed.

**Ten minutes later in the conference room**

"Sorry it took us so long" Robin sighed as he entered the conference room.

"No problemo, we're just getting the Justice league online" Cyborg replied as he manned the controls of the super computer.

Just as Cyborg finished with the controls, Superman and Batman appeared on the screen.

Everyone of the Justice Leagure gasped, they hadn't quite expected a call from the two of them at the same time.

"Um, Superman, Batman, what do we owe the honor of both of you calling us at the same time?" Robin asked politley.

"As I'm sure you all know by both of our appearances we have a serious problem" Batman began.

"What? No 'hi' or 'how are you doing?'" Robin grumbled bitterly at the all business attitude of the two.

"I'm sure you're aware of the criminal Blackfire's escape" Superman began, he sounded a little more tense than usual. "We are now aware of Blackfire having help in escaping"

Most of the Teen Titans were shocked to hear this news, however Starfire and Robin where already aware of the news.

"However we will proceed with reporting to the media that Blackfire escaped alone" Batman added, this seemed to surprise the others. "We believe the accomplaice didn't even really know Blackfire and just freed her to get at the organization that was responsible for her trial and execution" Batman continued. "In reporting that she escaped alone, we hope that they will stay close together so that we can catch them both at the same time, the "Light Justice Court" isn't at all pleased with the event, and want them both captured" Batman continued.

"So this is more psychological warefare now than just simply chasing a criminal" Robin remarked.

"Exactly, plus we will be sending Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Arrow, Red Tornado, and myself to Jump City" Batman said.

"WHAT!" Robin exclaimed, he hated it when Batman took over when Robin was more than capable of handling any criminal in this city.

"Don't get excited Robin, we have intel that suggests that Blackfire is hiding in Jump City, and we will arrive to take her into custody along with her helper" Superman exclaimed.

"Why? We can handle this" Robin argued.

"I'm sure you can handle Blackfire Teen Titans, however this "Dark Rouge" that helped her escape is an unknown factor, we don't know much or anything about him, and we can't risk you kids getting hurt due to our irresponsibility" Batman explained.

While the reason was fair, it didn't do much to quell Robin's anger. "Are we still able to search them out?" Robin asked hoping that Batman will at least be fair to them.

Batman and Superman only sighed. "It's your city, your responsibility, we won't stop you from searching them out, mostly because I know we can't stop you even if we said no. But however do exercise extreme caution, the one who broke Blackfire out is under no circumstances to be underestimated." Superman said as the video connection was then cut off.

Robin breathed a heavy sigh of relief, it honestly was a bit of a miracle that they managed to get the Justice League's consent to take action. Robin then turned to his group. "Alright, Teen Titans, let's get to work" And at that the Teen Titans scrambled to find out where Blackfire was hiding so that they could prove themselves to the Justice league before they even got there.

**In the Middle of the City in an undisclosed location**

Blackfire felt herself drift out of a deep sleep, unable to keep herself comfortable when her body was demanding food, she woke up slowly, and found herself in the middle of a small living room. The living room was well furnished and very comfortable despite belonging to someone from a lower class citizen. She pushed herself up off of the couch which she was lying on, and managed to make her way towards the room next to the one she was in. After entering it she found herself infront of a rather normal looking kitchen, everything was clean and spotless, except a small paper note on the table nearby.

Blackfire picked up the sheet of paper and read it. "Out to get groceries, there is some food and small snacks in the fridge". The note didn't even leave a name, no return time, not even a hint as to where the person who rescued her was going, this irritated her greatly to the point where she tore up the note and threw it in a nearby garbage can.

Walking over to the fridge to stop her painful hunger, she opened the fridge and found that the man must've been a good cook as he had several sets of dishes and different types of desert and dinners in different containers. Blackfire hearing her stomach growl again, decided not to pull any punches and silently vowed to empty the fridge before her rescuer got back.

**Back at the Teen Titans tower**

"Um, Robin remind me why we're tracking going through citizen records to see who had been out of the city when Blackfire was freed. You'd think that the helper would want to cover his tracks not make it obvious for us to find him" Beast Boy asked rather confused and irritated at what Robin was doing, deeming it a rather pointless task.

"That maybe for most people Beastboy, however this man was able to sneak aboard a secure ship and was able to make it back into the city without any suspicion being raised, he would try to hide his actions via normal life circumstances" Robin said.

"Yeah but there would be hundreds if not thousands of people who left the city how could we find that one person who would have helped Blackfire?" Beastboy asked, all the other titans seemed to hold the same question.

"Because, not everyone that returns has a sibling" Robin answered as he punched in a few words and then the search finder narrowed down to a single male. "Michael Narida, young white male, late teens, single child was reported to have left the city during the night and returned with someone he claims to be his sister" Robin read, "That's our man".

"Wait, he doesn't live that far from here" Cyborg noticed.

"Yeah, its amazing that he was able to hide so close to us and not notice, but that doesn't matter now, we're going to raid his house, everyone exercise extreme caution TITANS MOVE OUT!" Robin cried.

**Meanwhile back at the house**

Blackfire layed her head down on the table with a pile of plates mounted in huge stacks on the table, moaning from the bloated feeling of eating so much left Blackfire exhuasted. But her resting to wait until the digestion took place started a while ago, and Blackfire quickly began to feel life and energy quickly fill her body.

Unable to remain still for much longer she decided to roam the house and explore, if she was going to stay here until the heat died down, she would have to get to know the place. She guessed that her rescuer hadn't lived there that long, or he was extremly tidy cause there were little appliances save for a 32 inch television, a couple couches and a couple chairs, a desk here and there, wood flooring, no pictures on the wall, the table is old, and full of scratches and nicks, and the bedrooms were simple and looked rather untouched.

"What a boring house" Blackfire thought to herself, there was no life in the house, and all the furniture except the door was all cheap, Blackfire didn't care about the poor living conditions, she just felt stupid having unreasonably expected so much more out of a person who put himself in trouble to rescue her. "But" Blackfire whispered to herself, "It does seem to have a homely comfort that I guess I can get used to".

DINGDONG!

"Who could that be?" Blackfire said to herself, questions began to explode in her head if she should even try to open the door. "Eh what harm could it do?" Blackfire said, her spirits soaring after being rescued she felt so free that she couldn't predicted what would happen next. Approaching the door, Blackfire would only remember the danger she was in now that she was a fugitive.

BANG!

As Blackfire approached the door, someone smashed the door down, however thankfully Blackfire was far away enough from the door to be able to avoid the one who smashed down the door from grabbing her. She made a quick dash from the foyer to the stairway and dashed upstairs as fast as she could, fear and surprised gripping her throat and heart as the only thing that went throug her mind was to run as fast as she could. She heard the back door get smashed in making her thankful from chosing to run out the back door. Running upstairs she found herself running into the room that she woke up in and made for the window. However as she reached for the window she quickly withdrew herself as a red figure appeared outside the window.

THWACK!

"GAH!" Blackfire gasped as she felt an arm hit her across her backside and sent her into the wall nearby and next to a corner.

THUD!

Blackfire hit the ground and gasped again as she tried to get a hold of her situation. Crawling into the corner still in shock from the surprise raid on the house she was in, she found herself huddled in a slight fetal position as fear only gripped her more deeply, unable to figure out what was going on, the only thing she could tell was that Wonder Woman was standing above her looking as tall and proud as ever her stoic facial features seemed to discomfort Blackfire even further.

"Blackfire" a deep voice echoed from behind Wonder Woman. "You are under arrest for the murder of a member of the Light Justice Society, you are going to come with us" Batman continued as he alowly appeared from behind Wonder Woman.

Blackfire felt herself grow angry, not at the justice league for trying to catch her, but at what Batman said. "I-I d-didn't k-k-k-kill that m-man" Blackfire muttered trying to keep herself from breaking down.

"QUIT TRYING TO ESCAPE YOUR CRIMES, YOU WERE CONVICTED IN A COURT OF LAW FOR YOUR ACTIONS!" Wonder Woman cried not interested in hearing Blackfire's pleas.

**Meanwhile outside the building**

Michael was just rounding the last corner to his house, with bags of groceries in his arms. His face looking rather unconcerned about anything he's doing or anything that could possibly happen, until he gets a good look at the door of his house, where two people were standing.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD!" Michael cried as he ran up to his house observing the destruction of his doorway. "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE!" Michael cried as he yelled at the Justice League members.

"What does it look like where doing, were conducting a raid for a dangerous fugitive" Flash said to Michael.

"AND HOW DOES THAT CONCERN MY HOUSE!" Michael continued. "LET ALONE MY DOOR, THAT DOOR COST THOUSANDS!".

"I'm sorry about your door, however for harboring a criminal you too are under arrest" Flash explained.

"The hell I am" Michael's tone quickly changed at that new statement. Causing Flash and Green Arrow to become alert to Michael's change. "Pierce"

Both Green Arrow and Flash weren't prepared for what happened as two long dark sword like tendrils shot out of Michael's fingers and speared both Green Arrow and Flash through their midsections, effectivly paralyzing both Flash and Green Arrow.

"You all will pay for the damage you have done to my house" Michael said as he then dragged the tendrils through the majority of Green Arrow's and Flash's bodies as if attempting to cleave the two cleanly in half. However when the tendrils finished slicing through the two superheroes bodies, their bodies remained intact, however by the looks in their eyes they seemed to have mentally crashed and their bodies hit the pavement hard.

"Now, to finish off the rest who would vandalize the sanctity of my home" Michael said as shrouds of darkness began to whirl around him and eventually encase him. "And to rescue the ticket to my revenge" Michael said as the darkness disappated and Michael had changed to his fully clad in black figure, only this time tatto like lines etched across his face forming lines down from the middle of his eyes and across the bridge of his nose to reach beyond both cheeks. "Time for the Shadow to protect what belongs to it"

Ok that's the end of this chapter, now I'm going to continue in sequence with some of the other stories I have, mostly because I fail and only writing one story at a time. This story is meant to be a story that I'm expecting to hear good reviews from, but as everyone knows I still have much to learn, thus if there are any suggestions as to what might make the story better, feel free to say so. Anyway read and please review, and please enjoy.


	2. The Powers of Darkness

Author's note: Ok, so the story is going smoothly and I'm liking it so far, however I'm currently writing three stories at the same time, so yeah don't expect fast and speedy updates.

The Dark Rouge Chapter 2

Powers of Darkness

"Enough of your cowaring" Wonder Woman sighed as grabbed one of Blackfire's hands and lifted her off the floor. Blackfire wrestled with Wonder Woman's grip fruitlessly to get free.

"LET GO!" Blackfire cried.

"Stop struggling your not getting away, now where is the one who rescued you?" Batman asked.

"Do you really want to know that badly?" a voice echoed from behind Batman.

"NO WAY!" Batman cried, he was shocked that he didn't even notice the person's presence approach him from behind.

SMACK!

Batman was hit hard across the cheek and sent flying past Wonder Woman and Blackfire and through one of the closed windows making glass shatter everywhere.

"BATMAN!" Wonder Woman cried as she saw the Black Knight get punched through a window, which in a way was ironic as that would usually happen to the criminal.

SLISH!

Wonder Woman felt something slice through her wrist and in a moment of panic and agony Wonder Woman dropped Blackfire.

"GAH!" Wonder Woman cried as she felt sharp pains shooting throughout her wrist, but quickly checking her wrist showed her than her hand was still intact with her body.

The Dark Rogue didn't waste anytime kicking Wonder Woman while she was down. With his dark powers the Dark Rogue powered up his leg and kicked Wonder Woman through the walls next to them.

CRASH!

Wonder Woman was kicked through the walls and even through the outer exterior of the building itself. Wonder Woman having nothing to catch herself on hit the ground below with the Dark Rogue not far behind her.

THUD!

Wonder Woman tried to get up but her head was spinning not de to pain from the kick, but from being disoriented that she was hit much harder than the thought possible from her attacker.

"Giving up already? Your no fun" Wonder Woman heard the Dark Roguge taunt her which served to agrivate her much more deeply than the kick she recieved.

"DON'T GET COCKY!" Wonder Woman cried as she lunged at the Dark Rogue.

"Tch" The Dark Rogue stepped to the side dodging the attack, only to have Wonder Woman follow up with more punches and kicks.

"Not losing your nerve are you Dark Rogue?" Wonder Woman mocked back as she felt herself get the upper hand as she swung her leg in a large sweeping kick, only to have the Dark Rogue duck under it and thrust and open palm at Wonder Woman stomach.

"No, and the name is Shadow" Shadow sighed as his palm shot a small black orb into Wonder Woman stomach. The ball exploded and Wonder Woman was sent flying.

"Why you" Shadow heard Batman growl at him from behind. Shadow using his speed and experience in Martial Arts to block Batman's punch, but was unable to fully counter it as Batman began to throw several more attacks at Shadow.

"Batman, duck" Shadow heard a voice echo in the background and saw Baman step back and duck down. All Shadow saw was a red windy blur slam into him before he lost all sense on where he was. As the Red swirl cleared Shadow saw that he was not that far off the ground but he was being thrown head long into a building nearby.

SMASH!

Shadow hit the building hard, smashing in the outside wall, dust and debris flled the air making it impossible for the Justice League members to see what happened to him. Wonder Woman had managed to recover and walked up to Batman and Red Tornado.

"Well that takes care of him" Wonder Woman sighed.

"I don't think so" Batman said trying his best to peer through the dust cloud to no avail.

"Your over thinking this Batman, he may have had powers but however he wasn't any different than a human when it comes to resilience" Wonder Woman said as she turned away to go get Blackfire, who silently watched from the secon floor, seeing Shadow sent flying through a brick wall of another building did little to calm herself.

Batman however wasn't convinced that Shadow was down and out, he's had easy fights, hard fights, and even ones that would have taken his life if he hadn't recieved some form of help or a back up plan.

WHIR!

Batman's eyes widened as he heard a low whinning sound come from behind the dust cloud. "GET DOWN!" Batman cried as he ducked, however Red Tornado and Wonder Woman wasn't as quick. A small black ball shot from the dust cloud at amazing speed and hit Red Tornado square in the chest.

BAM!

The ball exploded on contact with Red Tornado's chest and sent the Red humanoid machine flying back and through Shadow's home.

"RED TORNADO!" Wonder Woman cried. She could barely see Red Tornado on the otherside of the house with the new hole he just made.

"DON'T LOSE FOCUS!" Batman cried as he could sense that Shadow didn't appreciate what had just happened to him.

Wonder Woman turned her head back towards where Shadow was, only to see a small black orb hit the ground infront of her and Batman effectivly blocking their view of Shadow. "He's not going to get the jump on me" Wonde Woman said to herself. However her determination would prove pointless as Shadow didn't seem to aim for them, Wonder Woman only got to see a flash of black zip right pst her before she knew what Shadow was after. "RED TORNADO LOOK OUT!" Wonder Woman cried.

Red Tornado was just getting off the ground and assessing the damage done to him when he heard Wonder Woman cry out a warning to him. Quickly looking up Red Tornado saw that Shadow was already standing infront of him, with one palm outstretched towards him.

"That hurt you bastard" Shadow said as a second black orb shot from Shadow's palm and slammed into the same area on Red Tornado, that the first orb hit.

BOOM!

The explosion for this one was a little different, it was more powerful and more concentrated than the last orb, and Red Tornado could feel the armor on his chest give way, as well as one of his arms and legs. Red Tornado flew a second time and this time landed in a house not far away disturbing a family having dinner, luckily Red Tornado didn't land on anyone.

"YOU BASTARD!" Wonder Woman cried as she threw a hard right at Shadow, however Shadow effortlessly dodged the punch as Wonder Woman being angry, was an easy opponent to read. Wonder Woman stumbled a bit as she didn't prepare herself for not landing the hit, only to have Shadow knee Wonder Woman in the stomach. The hit being reinforced with Shadow's dark power the hit had a greater power and effect on Wonder Woman than she thought possible. Shadow was about to slam a dark orb into Wonder Woman's back however Batman intervined in time.

"No you don't" Batman said in his usually dark tone stoic voice as he deflected Shadow's hand to a different direction where the orb shot off harmlessly into the ground.

Shadow whiped his hand back around to punch Batma who easily blocked the attack, and threw one of his own, Shadow like Batman blocked the attack however Shadow opted to kick at Batman who reacted to block it however what he forgot was that a seriously winded Wonder Woma was still between them, Shadow's kick connected with Wonder Woman's gut and sent her into Batman's lower body. Batman stumbled as Wonder Woman hit his knees, which left the perfect opening to Shadow.

THWACK!

Shadow landed a good right hook to Batman's jaw which sent the Dark Knight sprawling, Wonder Woman not having any mometum left after coming into contact with Batman's knees, she fell to the ground. Shadow quickly turned his attention towards Wonder Woman, he erected the same dark blades from his fingers than he used to free Blackfire from her cuffs. Shadow took aim and stabbed at Wonder Woman's head. Wonder Woman being concious and aware enough to see Shadow making a stab for her head lifted her wrists and used her golden wrist bands to deflect the blades.

"What?" Shadow looked shocked that Wonder Woman managed to deflect the blades, or more correctly, that the blades didn't cut through the bands didn't cut through them.

Wonder Woman saw an opportunity and punched Shadow in the face sending him staggaring back. Wonder Woman forgetting her pain and slight dizziness jumped to her feet and sent several more punches at Shadow. All of which connected and with a final kick Wonder Woman sent Shadow sprawling across the ground stopping several feet away. Wonder Woman attempted to make a second combo on Shadow when her dizziness got back to her and stalled her for a second, quickly shaking it off, she pursued the Dark Rogue.

'Looks like I need to end this quickly' Shadow thought to himself as he felt his head spin from the punches and his stomach throb from the kick.

Wonder Woman sent a hard right at Shadow's head who seemed to do nothing to dodge it, time seemed to slow down for Wonder Woman as she fet a strange satisfaction as she saw her fist connect with the bridge of Shadow's nose. However than feeling was short lived as she then realized that even though her fist was clearly hitting shadow she didn't feel any resistance which quickly confused the Amazon, until she saw her fist sink deeper into Shadow's face, and yet his face remain undistorted, as if she was only hitting air. Shadow then began to move his head towards the side bringing his head completely away from Wonder Woman's arm, Shadow then whispered "Pierce".

SLISH!

Wonder Woman barely followed what happened, as it all happened so quickly, Shadow's hand became a giant blade and Shadow thust that blade deep into Wonder Woman's gut. All Wonder Woman could feel before her world turned black was intense pain.

"NO!" Batman cried as he saw Shadow stick a dark blade that formed on his hand through Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman dropped to the ground without a sound, and Shadow staggared back to his feet.

'Crap' Shadow thought to himself, 'I may only have enough in me to deal with Batman, however if any reinforcements arrive, I won't be able to hold out'

"GRAH!" Batman cried as he charged at Shadow.

Shadow quickly raised a finger and whispered "Pierce" and a single tendril shot out several feet and stabbed through Batman's leg.

"GAH!" Batman gasped as the tendril shot through his thigh. Batman stopped in his tracks and grabbed at the tendril, Batman made sure that Shadow wasn't going to rip out his muscles as he held the tendril in place.

"This fight is over" Shadow sighed.

WHIRIRIRIR

Shadow heard a faint whirling sound, he quickly disappated his finger tendril and so a small dark orb at the sound, the orb contacted a small object that was thrown at him.

"TITAN'S GO!" Shadow heard a voice cry.

'Not good' Shadow thought, he heard one person run up to him from behind, Shadow jumped to the side which he found a second person waiting for him dressed in red an green, the young masked boy threw a punch at him which only ended up hitting air as Shadow ducked and struck back hitting the boy on the chin.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Shadow heard a female voice cry as a dark eagle lunged at him.

'Another dark user' Shadow thought as he ducked and rolled to avoid the Eagle. Shadow found himself in front of a giant gree T-rex, the ody colored Dinosaur chomped at him, only to have Shadow make one more desperate leap out of the way, however he was greated with another surprise as he turned his head. A young red-headed girl floating in air was behind him holding one hand out, the hand glowin dangerously green as she pointed the hand at Shadow.

"STOP!" someone cried, as the Red-headed girl was about to fire her green aura into Shadow's back when a purple clad figure deflected the girl's hand.

"Sister?" the Red-head said sounding deeply surprised.

Blackfire who Shadow saw saved him from taking one in the back didn't respond to the girl who Shadow heard call Blackfire "Sister". Blackfire gave a strong push, throwing the red-headed girl back only to have her stop herself in mid-air unhurt nearby.

"You ok Shadow" Blackfire asked.

"Thanks to you I am" Shadow responded. "However I'm exhausted and I can't fight much more, we need to go"

"But how" Blackfire asked, she didn't see a way out of this, Shadow was exhausted and hurt, Blackfire couldn't take on all the Titans herself.

"Just stay close" Shadow said as he pulled Blackfire close to him which made Blackfire blush in surprise.

WHOM!

Shadow and Blackfire where immediately engulfed in a large black orb, the Titan's watched in a mix o curiosity and surprise as the orb quickly shot into the air.

"TITANS STOP THEM!" Robin cried as he threw some explosive discs, Raven shot some dark balls at it, Cyborg shot a sonic blast at it, Starfire shot a couple starbolts at it, and Beastboy having no long range attacks just stood there watching.

BOOM!BANG!BOOM!

All the attacks connected however when the smoke cleared the orb was still intact. However before the Titans could attack again the ball then suddenly in a small pop, shot out several dark orbs, each of which shot off in random directions, the orb in the centre did this several times before it too disappeared. The Titans could only watch as the last of maybe a hundred dak orbs disappeared off into the distance.

"Aw man, they got away" Beastboy sighed.

"Nothing we can do about that" Robin sighed. Robin then looked at his mentor kneeling not t far away cradling his injured leg trying desperately to stop the bleeding. "Batman! You alright?" Robin asked.

"I'd never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad that you kids came" Batman said as he grabbed a pieced of his cape and ripped a piece of it off. "Don't worry about me, tend to the others, they got hit harder than I did, and Wonder Woman got stabbed through the gut" Batman instructed.

After hearing that Robin nodded and ran off towards where Robin was standing over Wonder Woman.

"How is she Raven?" Robin asked desparation evident in his voice as he feared the worst for the Amazoness.

"I don't know how to say it Robin" Raven said in an emotonless voice.

"Darn him" Robin growled.

"I don't see any signs of a stab or anything other than bruising on her" Raven explained.

"WHAT!" Robin cried in shock. "B-but Batman said she was stabbed"

"I heard that too, however look at her" Raven said pointing to Wonder Woman's stomach area. "Nothing"

Robin crouched down and inspected Wonder Woman's stomach closely, Raven was right there weren't any evident rips in the fabric, there wasn't even a drop of blood anywhere, but to be certain Robin grabbed one side of Wonder Woman's suit and lightly pulled on it to make the rest of the suit around the stomach shift, if there was a cut in Wonder Woman' suit it would open up, however as Robin pulled on the side of Wonder Woman's suit, no opening showed.

"That doesn't make sense" Robin thought out loud.

"I know, however the good news is, she's alive and she should be fine as long as nothing else happens" Raven explained.

"How is she?" Robin turned to see Batman staggaring towards them limping on his injured leg.

"Are you sure she got stabbed?" Robin asked.

"Of course, why?" Batman was rather startled by the question.

"Cause we can't find a stab wound anywhere" Robin explained.

"What?" Batman said shocked.

"She'll be fine, but we need to get her and the others to a hospital" Raven said.

"And a garage" everyone turned as they heard Cyborg approach. They saw Cyborg carrying Red Tornado, or what was left of him, as Red Tornado's chest armor was all but gone, his right leg was destroyed, and his left arm was in tatters, the rest of him however was in relatively good condition.

"Well let's go then" Batman said and the group made off with their wounded towards the Titan's tower.

**Meanwhile in an undisclosed location on the otherside of Jump City**

One of the dark orbs that Shadow and Blackfire got away in landed in a dark alleyway the dark orb popped and Shadow and Blackfire dropped to the ground. Shadow hit the ground hard, barely concious.

"Shadow are you all right?" Blackfire asked as she helped her rescuer to his feet.

"Yeah, I just used too much of my power, *huff* I need to rest" Shadow said.

"Are you comfortable sleeping in an alleyway?" Blackfire asked.

"No, I have *huff* a hideout nearby *huff* this way" Shadow said as he pointed deeper into the alley. The two limped and struggled their way down the alley and eventually came to a dead end.

"So where's this hideout?" Blackfire asked. Shadow only gestured to have her bring him closer to the wall, which Blackfire obliged to do. As Shadow and Blackfire got within a foot of the wall, Shadow tapped his fingers against the wall, and immediately a hole opened.

"Whoa" Blackfire said surprised. She peered inside however she couldn't see much of anything as a dark aura seemed to block her vision from inside.

"*huff* Inside" Shadow instructed.

"Ok" Blackfire said as she helped Shadow through the hole, after they had fully walked through the hole, it closed itself behind them.

**Back at Justice League Headquarters.**

Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Arrow where in the infirmary, surrounded by a pane of glass which seperated them from each other and the League members standing outside. Superman, Batman and the Teen Titans were axiously awaiting the doctors report.

HISS

Everyone turned their heads as a door to their right opened and a doctor walked through.

"Well?" Superman said urgently worried over his friends health.

"I don't know what to tell you" the doctor answered.

"That's not really giving us anything to work on doc" Batman said sounding a little irritated.

"I know I'm not giving you anything you don't know, however all I can say is that they are all in a clean bill of health, the only exception are you Batman and Red Tornado" the doctor said.

"Well what can you tell us about our wounds" Batman began to demand.

"Your wounds are all clean, not a speck of impurities, it would suggest that whatever this 'shadow' stabbed you with wasn't a rusty blade or anything similar" the doctor said.

"Which would suggest that what he stabbed you with was most likely a blade made out of his power" Robin said.

"But if it was made out of his power wouldn't it make sense that he could have also poisoned those he stabbed with them?" Cyborg suggested.

"It would, but it would also suggest that he either can't poison them or won't" Raven added.

"It would also make sense that it was his power, we've managed to mend your thigh bone Batman, however I must add that the blade that Shadow used to stab you went through your thigh bone like a knife through butter" the doctor added.

"That's insane" Robin said.

"How so friend Robin?" Starfire asked.

"The human thigh bone is as tough or more tough than hard concrete, it would take a really strong blade or a lot of force to do any such damage to it" Rbin explained.

"But I can exert enough force to break concrete" Starfire remarked.

"Let me put it this way Star, if you were to take a metal bat and beat it on the sidewalk, which would break first?" Robin asked.

"The metal bat of course" Starfire answered.

"Now imagine taking a sword and stabbing the sidewalk with it, which would break first?" Robin asked again.

"Um, both would be damaged however the sword would likely recieved more damage than the side walk" Starfire answered.

"Well, imagine the human bone to be like the sidewalk, and shadow's attack to be the blade, the difference is that shadow's blade didn't recieve any damage" Robin explained.

"I see, so Shadow's blade is as you said, most likely his power rather than an actual blade," Starfire said quickly catching up.

"But that also begs the question, how did he stab the others without leaving an insulting wound?" Batman asked, the doctor looked rather solumn.

"I do have a theory however, it is very farfetched" the doctor said.

"Better something rather than nothing" Superman replied.

"It's actually a couple of theories. First, it's possible that Shadow has he ability to cast an illusion that he has a blade stab through a person, thus the resulting illusion would force a person to think they were being stabbed and lose conciousness from the shock of the anticipated feeling" the doctor said.

"That would make sense" Batman said. "However Shadow's power being an illusion-"

"Exactly" the doctor interuppted. "If Shadow were able to cast illusions to such an extent it causes the wonder that he has the power to slice bone no problem, it wouldn't make sense that Shadow's main power is illusions yet, still able to affect the physical reality, that and it wouldn't result in the victim going into a coma. Which leads to my second theory" the doctor continued.

"Go on" Superman said.

"What if Shadow's power's isn't illusionary, and he really is 'cutting' or 'stabbing' them, but however his power transends the ability to just affect their physical being?" the doctor said leading them into a form of a riddle.

"You mean, hes cutting something else?" Batman said somewhat shocked at where this was going.

"Exactly" the doctor replied.

"Wait what would he be 'cutting' or 'stabbing' then?" Beast Boy asked.

"Their souls?" Raven suggested looking frightened.

"That is what my second theory would imply, he's 'cutting' or 'stabbing' their souls, theoretically this would cause a great imbalance to the victim mentally and would cause severe pain, which is what would put them into a coma" the doctor said.

"Now that's insane" Robin said shocked at the theory.

"Is there any good news?" Superman asked.

"There is some and it goes with my theory" the doctor answered.

"Go on" Superman said.

"I he really is cutting a person's soul, it would make sense that it would caue great damage to the victim, however the soul, like the human can recover, however they would have to go into a form of physical stasis to have their souls repair" the doctor said.

"I get there's more" Batman said.

"There is, bu however it's more a possibility, what makes me wonder is if there is a limit to the soul's ability to repair itself, what if you did such extensive damage like slicing the soul to ribbons, or shredding it to pieces?" the doctor answered.

"Theoretically there would be no way to recover from that, or each individual soul would have to become it's own seperate entitiy" Raven answered.

"Exactly, if Shadow knows of this limit, if there is one, he could have easily shredded your friends souls to pieces effectively killing them or their powers dangerously weakened, yet they seem to be stable as if they're recovering from a tremendous shock" the doctor said.

"Well, Wonder Woman only got stabbed nothing more, and if her vitals are like the others, it would make sense that he only stabbed or slashed the others at a very minimal amount" Batman said.

"This 'Dark Rogue' Shadow, he either spared your friends lives, or didn't know that he could possibly kill them like that" the doctor finished.

"Now that's a scary thought" Cyborg said.

The doctor turned and left, with nothing more to say he returned to treating his patients.

"Well what should we do now?" Robin asked.

"The Justice League has been hit hard with this loss of members however, we're also getting trouble all across the galaxy we can't afford to spare more heroes for this, so we're going to leave it to you kids" Batman said.

"I'd never thought I'd say this but NO WAY!" Robin cried. "We came at a good time to help you, bu there's no way I'm going to takeone someone who can stab my soul without any extra help"

"Don't worry, I've made a call to the Light Justice Society, they're sending someone who has experience with fighting Shadow, he'll be here in a couple of days" Batman said.

"Wait, why do they have someone who can take on Shadow and yet leave us to handle him?" Cyborg asked.

"Because Earth is our jurisdiction, not theirs so it was our responisbility to handle him, however he was more dangerous than we thought, so we had to ask for help" Superman explained.

"Well, what's his name?" Robin asked.

"He goes by the name Aldomea, which by some ancient text that the Light Justice Society is familiar with means 'Sun King'" Batman answered.

"Will he be staying long?" Robin asked.

"Right now he's only staying until Shadow, and Blackfire are caught, after than he'll leave, if the Light Justice Society and the Justice Legue decide that we want some form of ambassador, or Liason that will be determined in the future but for now his participation is temporary" Superman explained.

"When does he get here?" Robin asked.

"Tomorrow" Batman answered.

"Alright, I guess we need to get back and make room for him" Robin said as he ushered the other Titans out.

"Do you think that they'll be alright?" Superman asked Batman.

"They'll be fine, as long as Aldomea does what the Light Justice Society says he can do, they'll be fine" Batman answered confindently.

"Let's hope so" Superman said as they too turned and left.

End

Author's note: alright so far that's chapter 2, it's taking a little longer than I had origionally pictred but other than that it's coming out nicely in my opinion.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW, if you have any suggestion than feel free to send them.


	3. Clash of Titans

The Dark Rogue

Chapter 3

The Clash of Titans

Blackfire sat in the seemingly empty void of darkness, Shadow laid next to her wrapped in a thick veil of dark aura. Unable to sleep, resulting in her messy hair, and red-shot eyes. She didn't know how long they were there, as the sun doesn't show in this realm, however shadow had repeatedly told her that they were safe here, as the only other person who can access this realm was someone similar to him, but people like him are very uncommon.

"Hey Shadow?" Blackfire asked hoping that Shadow was wake.

"Yeah?" Shadow replied.

"How long have we been here?" Blackfire asked.

"Don't know" Shadow answered.

"H-how much longer do we need to be here? I'm beginning to miss the sun" Blackfire asked.

"Not long now, I can't give an accurate answer, but I should need less than a day" Shadow answered.

"Alright" Blackfire answered, feeling at least content with what Shadow told her.

**Meanwhile at the Titans Tower**

"ROBIN!" Beasy boy cried down the hall way, tears streaming down his face.

"What is it Beast Boy" Robin replied believing that they were under attack, or an emergency was occuring down in the city.

"Aldomea wrecked our game box" Beast Boy whined.

"He, he, wha, hold on, wha?" was Robin's only reply.

"Sh-she didn't even make it to her third birthday" Cyborg cried cradling the burnt remnants of the game box that he and Beast Boy loved so much.

"Uh!" Robin wasn't even sure if he wanted to waste his time with this incident, Cyborg and Beast Boy had always had some form of antics going on, but when Aldomea arrived it just got worse.

"Well, maybe if you idiots weren't on it all night with the sound blasting like this morning, it wouldn't have happened" a voice echoed from around the corner. Aldomea rounded the corner behind Beast Boy and Cyborg. Aldomea was 15 years old, light brown hair, bright blue eyes, white skinned, standing roughly 5'7", and wearing a light blue jacket, with dark blue jeans. Aldomea arrived two days ago, only to find that Shadow had all but disappeared, and hadn't shown himself at all since he put three Justice League members in the hospital.

"SHUT UP GAME WRECKER!" Cyborg cried.

"FUN BREAKER!" Beast Boy joined.

"HOPE KILLER!" Cyborg continued.

"POOR SPORT!" Beast Boy cried.

"SORE LOSER!" Cyborg bawled.

Robin couldn't believe what he was hearing, Beast Boy and Cyborg, had gotten so used to responding to each other in similar ways when they were arguing, that they're still doing it even when not arguing with each other.

"LIGHTWEIGHT" Cyborg cried.

"GAME HATER" Beast Boy added.

Robin was starting to grow irritated with all the yelling, and had to yell for Beast Boy and Cyborg to stop.

"ENOUGH BOTH OF YOU!" Robin yelled at the top of his lungs earning shocked looks from both Beast Boy and Cyborg. "We've got bigger things to worry about than a destroyed game console, Shadow is still on the loose and he hasn't shown up in days, we need to anticipate his next move." Robin ordered.

Beast Boy and Cyborg held a sour look, but quietly agreed.

"Aldomea, is there anything you can tell us about Shadow?" Robin asked.

"Other, than I hate him?" Aldomea asked back.

"Well obviously" Robin replied.

"Alright. Shadow, has been an enemy to the Light Justice Society for years, he has killed many of our members in the past, and often left a lot of collateral damage and death in his wake. I'm reguarded as one of the handful capable of dealing with him, as everytime I've fought him, not a significant amount of damage has been done, and I'm one of the few to have dealt with him and live to tell the tale." Aldomea began explaining.

"What are his powers?" Robin asked, remembering the damage Shadow dealt to Batman, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, Green Arrow, and Flash.

"Shadow as his name implies, he uses shadow related powers. Or to be more specific the shadows are his power" Aldomea explained.

"Wait, wait, how does one use shadows as power?" Beast Boy asked.

"Shadow comes from an ancient line of people from Earth believe it or not, that were gifted with the ability to manipulate natural darkness. That ability eventually evolved to allow one to use it for their own creative or destructive purposes" Aldomea continued.

"I would assume it's the same with your powers?" Raven asked knowing that Aldomea is a light user.

"Correct, our two ancient heritages are related. However beyond that fact is Shadow isn't an easy opponent, you can never really win against him." Aldomea answered. "He's eluded us for several years, and despite our best efforts, and our best members, he's still managed to escape and continue to cause us trouble" Aldomea continued to explain.

"What is he capable of doing to us with his powers?" Robin asked.

"Well, his powers are shadows, he's capable of causing sillouette illusions, and can even attack the physical and spiritual aspect of his opponents" Aldomea answered.

"So he can attack your soul" Raven responded.

"yeah, he can why?" Aldomea asked.

"He put Wonder Woman into a coma after stabbing her in the stomache, but her physical body wasn't harmed so, we assumed it must have been a mental, or spiritual attack." Robin explained.

"I see, but that's good news" Aldomea said. "No one who's suffered a spiritual attack from Shadow has yet to die, and yet to sustain any long lasting damage or effects." Aldomea assured.

"Anything else, I mean, his powers, have to have some limitations?" Robin asked.

"Yes, they do, but however, it's limitations aren't fatal" Aldomea answered.

"What does that mean?" Cyborg asked.

"Shadow's powers, or to be more general, 'our' powers as the origins of our powers are like twins, similar, yet individual" Aldomea began. "Our powers, are influenced, by both our mentality, and our physical ability. So we can be weak or strong depending on our state of mind, our emotions, and our understanding of our powers. Our physical bodies bear a significant burden when using our powers, it has what we call "Gaia's Effect", it's when our bodies basically become strained due to our power usage, thus one could become very weak, or exhausted very quickly depending on how much we use or how wasteful we are with our powers"

"It explains why he took off so fast, he probably was suffering too much of this "Gaia's Effect" to keep on going against us when we got there" Robin assessed, remembering how quickly Shadow took off when they arrived to help the Justice league.

"He must have been wastful, which is awfully unlike him, cause Shadow doesn't run so quickly from a fight, but Shadow also doesn't take any of his opponents lightly unless he's familiar with their abilities" Aldomea suggested.

"Any other limitations?" Raven asked.

"All of us, rely on a 'default' source of our powers, however we can have more than one source of power, assuming conditions are right" Aldomea said.

"What's this one, 'default' source of power?" Robin asked.

"All of the light and shadow users from our heritage have the ability to absorb light or darkness of our surroundings and save it for later, however it's a limited supply" Aldomea answered.

"Which would suggest, that if say shadow was in or near the shadow cast, by say, a building, he could use that as a source of power in place of his stored energy" Robin said catching quick to how Shadow's and Aldomea's powers are affected by their environment.

"Exactly" Aldomea acknowledged.

"But that means he's incapable of running out of power" Beast Boy complained.

"But the more he uses it, the more he hurts himself" Cyborg added.

"Remember that I suffer from 'Gaia's Effect' as well guys. This effect is universal, and doesn't discriminate between what power one uses" Aldomea explained.

"Aldomea, would his powers be weaker during the day time?" Robin asked.

"Yes it is" Aldomea answered.

"Then if would make sense to fight him during the day right?" Starfire asked.

"It would, only Shadow's powers isn't hindered by daylight, it just means that shadows for him to feed off of, are less plentiful" Aldomea explained.

"So it doesn't make Shadow weaker, it just makes it more difficult for him to fight, not much of an advantage, but still one none the less" Robin thought out loud.

"But then that would make the opposite true, Shadow would be much more powerful during night time" Cyborg thought.

"Yeah, he's much more powerful and dangerous during nightime" Aldomea answered.

"Anything else unique he can do?" Robin asked.

"He's able to become intangible" Aldomea answered.

"What does that mean?" Beast Boy asked.

"It means he can't be hurt by physical means" Robin answered.

"Correct, he's able to turn his body into a shadow sillouette and can't be harmed by physical means, but can still be affected by energy attacks, whether that hurts him or not depends on the attack" Aldomea explained.

"That's explains how he was able to attack the ships guards without much worry, their bullets couldn't hurt him" Robin said.

"But Shadow has gone into hiding, we don't know when he could surface again" Starfire said.

"Don't worry, Shadow hasn't shown himself because he's recovering, though I don't know where he goes to recover, as the place he goes is never in the same place, I can say that he will show himself sooner or later" Aldomea answered.

**Somewhere in the middle of Jump City**

Meanwhile in an alley in the middle of Jump City, a dark portal opened with Shadow and Blackfire standing inside it.

Blackfire stretched her arms out and faced the sun, not having seen the sun for almost three full days, Blackfire could honestly say she was happy to be outside, she now knew more than ever she would never last in prison.

"We need to move Blackfire, the Justice league won't simply let us get away, and the Light Justice Society will certainly want to come after us" Shadow said.

"Have you always lived 'on the run'?" Blackfire asked.

"Yeah" Shadow answered as he too began to stretch out.

"How do you live?" Blackfire asked.

"Simple, have a reason to keep on going" Shadow answered.

"And what's your reason?" Blackfire asked.

Shadow simply looked at her and took a deep breath. "To destroy the Light Justice Society" Shadow answered.

"Why did you make the Light Justice Society your enemy?" Blackfire asked. She knew how large the Light Justice Society is, and how powerful they are, so it would make one wonder why someone like Shadow would go out of his way to destroy them.

"They killed my family" Shadow answered with a huff.

"I'm sorry to hear that" Blackfire responded.

"Don't be, it's not your fault they're dead" Shadow answered.

"Why did the Light Justice Society kill them?" Blackfire answered.

Shadow simply sighed again before answering. "My family are shadow users, and simply put, light users and shadow users don't like each other" Shadow explained. "Some radical groups formed on both sides advocated the extinction of the other, the Light Justice Society is just the largest of them. They claim that all shadow users are born of the devil, and need to be destroyed to bring a utopia to the universe." Shadow continued.

"That's disturbing" Blackfire growled hearing Shadow explain what the Light Justice Society is like. "Then again I shouldn't be surprised, they convicted me of a crime I didn't commit, and sentenced me to death" Blackfire said.

"I know" Shadow said. "I rescued you remember?"

"Oh yeah" Blackfire replied sheepishly.

"Come on let's go, it's harder for the Justice League and others to track us while we're on the move" Shadow said as he began walking towards the public road.

"Ok" Blackfire replied as she ran to catch up to Shadow.

**Meanwhile at the Titans Tower**

"For the last time, I'm not replacing your game box" Aldomea cried.

"YOU WILL OR SUFFER OUR WRATH!" Beast Boy cried.

"What wrath?" Aldomea said.

"THIS WRATH!" Cyborg said as he charged up his sonic gun.

"CYBORG PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!" Robin cried desperate to prevent Cyborg from blowing up the floor of the building.

"But he must pay" Cyborg growled in the lowest tone he could muster.

"The entire floor of the tower isn't worth a game box" Robin replied.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Cyborg and Beast boy cried.

"Oh, I'm in trouble" Robin moaned realizing that he just pushed them to a new level.

"SO YOU'VE SIDED WITH GAME HATER HAVEN'T YOU!" Beast Boy yelled.

"NO!" Robin yelled.

"LIAR, YOU SHALL PAY!" Cyborg cried as he charged up his weapon.

"Enough with this" Aldomea groaned as he leapt behind Beast Boy and Cyborg. Quickly placing a hand on each of their heads he muttered one word. "Sleep"

"Oh"

"Oh" Beast Boy and Cyborg moaned as they collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Uh, Aldomea, What did you do?" Robin asked.

"I put them to sleep what do you think?" Aldomea retorted.

"I know that, but how?" Robin asked.

"Oh, I just controlled the light that was entering their brains and distorted it, making them both dizzy and drowsy, and the ending result is, well, they fall asleep" Aldomea answered.

"Do you have to touch them to do that?" Robin asked.

"Yeah" Aldomea answered.

"Ok, that explains that part, can Shadow do something similar to that?" Robin asked.

"Well, he can do the same thing, only he just forces your brain to 'darken' or in other words, shutdown for a bit." Aldomea answered

"Can he kill us doing that?" Robin asked.

"As far as I know, no, he can't" Aldomea answered.

"At least there's some good news." Robin sighed.

"Like I said, there's no winning with Shadow, the only way to get him, as far as I know are either overwhelming numbers, which never works, or luck." Aldomea answered.

"Why does overwhelming numbers never work?" Robin asked, as he and Aldomea began to walk towards the computer room.

"Shadow finishes the fights way too fast for reinforcements to arrive, and having more than enough people than he can handle will force him to stay away and in hiding, so there is no way to get a proper amount of men together to take him out" Aldomea answered.

"So not only is he powerful, but he's well informed, resourceful, and intelligent" Robin analyzed.

"Like I said you can't win against him" Aldomea said.

"So the best chance we have is to just outlast him" Robin sighed.

"That's the only strategy that works at the moment" Aldomea answered.

Robin and Aldomea entered the computer room and walked straight up to the computer.

"We're do you think he could be going next?" Robin asked.

"I don't know, Shadow doesn't have a specific home or place to return to, and since his biggest goal was to get Blackfire, heaven knows what he could end up doing next, but if he ends up attacking a major populated area we will be in big trouble" Aldomea answered.

**Meanwhile**

"So Shadow, we're we going?" Blackfire asked.

"The undergroung" Shadow answered.

"Why the underground?" Blackfire asked.

"Best place to hide from the police and the justice league, after all as the saying goes "Don't feat the dark, for what you should fear more can't find you in it"" Shadow said.

"Cool, who said that?" Blackfire asked.

"Uh, me actually" Shadow answered.

Blackfire could do nothing but giggle at Shadow's response, and the idea that her rescuer and wanted criminal was also a philosopher.

Author's notes: I'm in need of some ideas cause I'm drawing blanks, anyway, read and review, cause I could sure use the motiviation.


	4. A Deal with the Devil

The Dark Rogue

Chapter 14

A deal with the Devil

Aldomea and Robin stood staring at a computer in the Titans tower however; Robin was in front of the computer growling and grumbling, while Aldomea was standing further back arms folded.

"I told you, you're not going to find anything" Aldomea sighed.

"That's impossible, I have to find something, there has to be something we missed" Robin growled.

"Trust me you didn't miss anything" Aldomea sighed again fruitlessly trying to convince Robin to stop his search for a clue to Shadow's and Blackfire's whereabouts.

"And how would you know that?" Robin asked.

"Remember Shadow has been the enemy of the Light Justice Society for several years, he's evaded capture and managed to kill several of our members in those several years, and I assure you we have a lot more resources to spend on searching for him than even you could muster, and we can't even find him at the best of times" Aldomea explained.

"I'm sorry Aldomea but I've never been able to not find someone before, and knowing the damage he can cause I'm even more determined to find him before he can cause any damage" Robin replied.

"I know it can be difficult Robin but as I said Shadow isn't an ordinary criminal he's intelligent, and Resourceful enough to know how to evade capture" Aldomea continued to explain.

"Yeah I remember, cause he's been and enemy of yours for years" Robin sighed.

"Yeah, and hey it won't do the team any good if you're starved or short on rest if and when we face him again" Aldomea said stepping closer to Robin. "Get some rest and or get something to eat"

"Fine" Robin sighed admitting defeat after several hours of searching and finding absolutely nothing.

**Meanwhile in another part of Jump city**

Shadow and Blackfire walked along a series of warehouses along one of the city's piers, Shadow quietly muttering to himself as he inspected the warehouses, and Blackfire looking absolutely bored.

"Shadow I don't mean to pry but how much longer are we gonna have to keep searching" Blackfire whined.

"It's barely been a couple of hours Blackfire" Shadow replied not taking his eyes off the rows of warehouses.

"Well forgive me if I'm bored out of my skull, and worried about being found any minute" Blackfire continued to whine.

Shadow just lightly chuckled at Blackfire's whining, I know it's not fun searching for the Underground Blackfire, but don't worry, I'm good at not leaving a trail to follow, so don't worry so much about being found, as long as you don't destroy anything" Shadow sighed sensing Blackfire was up to something.

Blackfire quickly dissipated a small purple star bolt she was beginning to charge up and aiming at one of the nearby trashcans. "Wouldn't even dream on it" Blackfire lied sheepishly.

"Good because I just found it" Shadow said stopping in front of one of the warehouses.

"Oh good" Blackfire sighed in relief.

Shadow and Blackfire approached the warehouse door. Blackfire noticed nothing unique about it that would have separated the door from any of the other warehouses. But she guessed that that's how the 'Underground' remains 'Underground', otherwise anyone could find it. However she did begin to wonder how Shadow was able to find the specific warehouse out of the possible hundreds of warehouses in the pier. The warehouse had a small business sign that hinted towards the fishing industry in some way, which didn't really surprise her, but the sign could have simply been a ruse, but something told her that that wasn't how Shadow found the location.

Shadow approached the door and knocked, no discernable pattern or anything, just a simple knock. After waiting several seconds someone opened the door, a large man dressed in fishing gear, rain proof overalls, a large grey beard, and with a pipe to complete the stereotype.

"What do you need stranger?" the man asked in a rather friendly tone.

"That depends" Shadow replied shrugging. "On how much you want to win?"

The man's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as realization seemed to hit him.

"OH MY!" The man cried. "Shadow is that you?"

"Indeed it is Stoneman" shadow replied smiling, then before Blackfire could blink the man called Stoneman pulled Shadow in for a bear hug, or fish hug considering how the man reeked of fish.

"It's so good to see you" Stoneman said continuing to hug Shadow while almost coming to tears.

"Good to see you too, but having a hard time breathing here Stoneman" Shadow replied beginning to gasp for air.

"Oh sorry" Stoneman replied letting Shadow go.

"No, worries" Shadow replied gasping for air.

Blackfire only giggled in response to seeing Shadow actually double over from a rather intense hug.

"And who is this lovely young lady" Stoneman said taking a slight bow attempting to show some courtesy.

"My name is Blackfire" Blackfire replied.

"Are you Shadow's girlfriend?" Stoneman asked in a quick and carefree tone.

Blackfire immediately began to blush madly from the question turning almost bright red.

"No were not" Shadow replied finally seeming to catch his breath.

"Not yet you mean?" Stoneman asked again, obviously teasing, but Blackfire was too flustered to tell he was teasing.

"N-n-no, he just saved my life that's all" Blackfire replied fanning her face to try and get her face back to normal, why she was blushing so badly was at the moment beyond her, but all she knew is that she wanted to abandon the topic immediately.

"Alright that's enough Stoneman" Shadow said regaining his posture. "So how much do you want to win?"

"Well I've been needing to get my home refurbished, so, a lot" Stoneman replied with a wide grin.

"Good enough" Shadow replied as Stoneman turned and lead Shadow and Blackfire deeper into the warehouse.

"First time to the Underground sweetheart?" Stoneman asked.

"Yeah, it is" Blackfire replied finally getting her face back to its original color.

"I take it that you're not going to participate?" Stoneman asked.

"No she won't" Shadow replied.

"Participate in what?" Blackfire asked.

"You'll see" Shadow smiled.

The group approached a door which had an interesting dail knob on it, Stoneman took hold of the dail knob and turned in slightly one way, then the other way, then back the other way, then the other way again. Other than that Blackfire didn't see much at all. The knob made a small clicking sound and Stoneman pushed the door open.

As the door swung open Blackfire found them to be staring into a small hallway that seemed to be much like a small time hotel hallway, regular brown carpet, a lamp every ten feet on both sides of the hallway.

"Well come on" Stoneman said as he almost skipped into the hallway, and continued down the corridor.

Shadow and Blackfire followed suit minus the skipping, until they came to a double door entrance, Stoneman took one door while Shadow took another.

"Well young lady, we welcome you…" Stoneman began as he quickly began to push the door.

"To the Underground" Shadow finished as they opened the doors to an expansive cavern.

Blackfire was shocked to say the least, the Underground was full of people, mostly human like beings, all shuffling around a seemingly endless shopping mall. The cavern had several levels each with their own set of market specialties including outfits, tools, resources, and weapons. Blackfire quickly went to the edge of the level they were currently on, only to see that there were more levels down below, with a large oval shaped field of dirt at the bottom.

"Come on Blackfire" Shadow called as they set out deeper into the Underground cavern.

**Back at the Titans Tower**

"Uuuugggghhh" Robin groaned, his head laid out on the table.

"Bored to death?" Cyborg asked his eyes not leaving a small electronic like object he was tinkering with.

"Yes" Robin continued to groan.

"It's been awfully quiet even for the regular criminals, if this keeps up we may become redundant" Cyborg sighed.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

"Well if there are no criminals wouldn't it make sense if we got disbanded, I mean it's like having a police force when there are no crimes being commited" Cyborg explained.

"I guess" Robin sighed, his head not leaving the table.

"By the way didn't Aldomea even tell you to get some sleep?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah" Robin replied.

Cyborg looked away from his gadget for the first time to look at Robin, Robin's eyes were seemingly lifeless, a small puddle of drool began to slowly build near where Robin's mouth was resting.

"Hey Robin, I heard Starfire was going to dump you and start dating Raven" Cyborg said.

"Ok" Robin sighed.

"Wow you really are out of it" Cyborg said setting his gadget down.

"Who's out of what?" Aldomea asked out loud as he entered the kitchen.

"Oh, Robin is" Cyborg answered.

"What? I told him to get some sleep" Aldomea sighed.

"Well, he may as well be, he didn't even respond when I told him Starfire was going lesbian with Raven" Cyborg said.

"Is she?" Aldomea asked almost sounding hopeful.

"No" Cyborg replied not noticing the way Aldomea asked the question.

"Well regardless I need to talk to Robin" Aldomea stated returning his attention to Robin's semi-concious form.

"Well good luck getting him up I tried my worst" Cyborg stated turning away and back to his gadget.

Aldomea stared at Robin for a second, then quickly thought of something. "Hey Robin, Shadow's in the other room kissing Starfire".

"WWHHAATT!?" Robin cried as he shot up from his slumped postion.

"Relax Robin, Shadow isn't here" Aldomea sighed as he gave Robin a moment to gain his bearings. "But I do need to talk to you"

"Fine" Robin growled as he turned to leave, continuing to pout obviously not happy about what Aldomea said.

"That was low dude" Cyborg said stifling a laugh.

"I don't really care" Aldomea sighed not concerned that he pulled something that low on Robin just to get him up. Aldomea quickly followed after Robin into an isolated room where no one else was able to hear them.

"What did you want to talk about Aldomea?" Robin asked weariness still evident in his eyes.

"It's about one of your team mates, I think her name is Raven?" Aldomea started.

"What about her?" Robin asked quickly waking himself up mentally, as he started to not like where this was possibly going.

"Before I start I want you to know that this is your team, and I am nothing more than a helper, a liason. It isn't my place to tell you what to do with your team in your place" Aldomea stated quickly.

"Ok good" Robin replied, his tone implying for Aldomea to go on.

"The only grievance I will voice is this question. How much do you trust her?" Aldomea asked.

"Raven is a valued member of this team, and I trust her with my life" Robin stated. Quietly a shadow shuffled in the darkness of one of the nearby hallways listening to Aldomea's and Robin's converstion.

"I understand that, and as I said I cannot and will not tell you what to do with your team. However I must voice my concern of her being a dark power user, and being half demon" Aldomea stated.

"How did you know she is half demon?" Robin asked.

"I could sense it in her, as well as her struggle to keep her demon side in control" Aldomea added.

"So does your 'concern' only stretch to her struggle to control her powers, or the fact that she's a dark power user who happens to be on our side?" Robin asked.

"A bit of both to be honest" Aldomea answered. "However she is not my enemy so I will not do anything to her, but as a man who's dealt with dark power users plenty of times, I only urge you to exercise caution" Aldomea finished.

"Noted" Robin sighed. "I'm going to bed"

"Have a good rest my friend" Aldomea called as he left the room.

Robin waited a few moments before calling out. "you can come out Raven".

Raven quietly walked into the room, her face bearing some sign of being emotionally hurt but keeping it largely under wraps.

"Thank-you, for defending me" Raven said quietly.

"It's not a problem Raven, but much like Aldomea I want you to refrain from picking any fights with him" Robin said hoping to avoid some serious infighting.

"Of course" Raven said as she turned to leave.

"This just got a whole lot harder" Robin sighed as he too left the room to go to bed, now more worried about what may happen between the Titans, the Justice League, and the Light Justice Society, if Raven were to suddenly become one of Aldomea's targets.

**In the Underground**

"A fighting ring?" Blackfire asked staring at a large metal fenced door at the end of a hallway leading to the large oval dirt base at the bottom of the cavern.

"Yup, here people can fight and earn money, lots of money depending on who you are and who you fight" Stoneman explained. "And if you're really good and someone sees it they can financially support you but since Shadow doesn't stay within the Underground or visit regularly he never receives any consistent flow of money"

"So that house you had that the Justice League attacked was your only one?" Blackfire asked.

"The Justice League attacked you?" Stoneman asked.

"Yeah after I saved her" Shadow answered gesturing towards Blackfire.

"Cool, that would make you now one of many that are currently hiding in the Underground that have crossed the justice league and or their affiliates, though there are far more who've crossed the Teen Titans here than people who've crossed the Justice League" Stoneman stated.

"Why are so many people who've crossed the Teen Titans here? Wouldn't that just draw them here?" Blackfire asked.

"Not really, they don't know of this place, this is merely a neutral zone, criminals can come here and do what they want as long as it's nothing criminal." Stoneman answered. "And because this is a safe haven any links to this place are destroyed, or exceptionally minimal".

"Well makes sense I guess" Blackfire said.

"Which reminds me, because you've now crossed the Justice League it means that your worth more" Stoneman said. "I've gotta go and update your board status" and at that Stoneman left.

"Oh yeah I also forgot to change my Board status from 'Absent' to 'Participating', oh well, I'm sure Stoneman will change that for me" Shadow sighed.

"Board status?" Blackfire asked.

"Yeah it's on the fifth level, near the 'Betting Counter', it's where people pay to fight, register, and collect their earnings" Shadow explained as he began to stretch.

"Does it cost anything to register?" Blackfire asked.

"No" Shadow answered.

"How does one earn money through fighting?" Blackfire asked.

"Well, the board shows who's available to fight and who isn't. If you want to fight someone you pay a 'Challengers fee', then during the fight, people take bets on who wins and who loses, after the fight the winner collects the 'Challengers fee' and any winnings that they'd get from the bets placed against them" Shadow explained.

"How much does one have to pay to fight someone?" Blackfire asked.

"Depends on who the person is" Shadow answered. "I've seen fees as low as ten dollars, and others as high as Fifty thousand"

Blackfire began to quickly drool over the thought of all that money, though she barely understood how valuable each dollar is. All she knew is that if she could get on that board and earn a lot she could get a lot of stuff she's wanted without having to steal it.

"Um how much are you worth fighting?" Blackfire asked.

"Why? Are you hoping to bet for me or against me?" Shadow joked.

"Neither just curious" Blackfire lied. She had no money so she couldn't bet, but if she could keep up with Shadow in some aspects maybe she could earn a lot of money by fighting.

"Last time I was here, I was worth roughly Five thousand a fight" Shadow answered.

Blackfire began to pout, that wasn't a lot of money a single fight wouldn't earn her that much, she'd have to fight several times just to have in her opinion a significant amount.

"But I've made plenty of rivals and enemies here, so I should get a large number of challengers" Shadow stated matter of factly.

"So the more people who don't like you and want to fight you and will pay to fight you?" Blackfire asked.

"Yeah that's the basic idea" Shadow answered.

Suddenly before Blackfire could ask how one gets enemies here without too much trouble. A loudspeaker boomed over the entire cavern.

"_Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a special announcement to make, the fight you've all been waiting for has finally come, the usually absent Shadow has returned to the Underground and is awaiting challenges. Note that some things have happened since his last visit thus the fee to fight him has gone up so if you really wish to fight him, head on over to the Betting Counter and pay up" _The Announcer stated.

Blackfire could hear and increase of cheering, and buzzing in the upper floors though, since she couldn't see any of them she had to settle with the thought that there were a lot of people who want to either see this or fight him.

"And trust me on this Blackfire" Shadow said turning towards her. "You're better off not making as many enemies as I did down here".

Blackfire was a little shocked by that, she couldn't tell what Shadow meant by that but assumed that meant that her idea wasn't a very good one.

The fenced gate quickly opened to let Shadow enter the arena. Shadow only glanced back at Blackfire his eyes basically telling her not to do anything stupid in his absence. Shadow then turned and entered the arena, with the gate closing behind him.

"_Ladies and Gentlemen we have our first challengers…" _The announcer's voice trailed off as Blackfire began to quickly wonder how dangerous this fighting arena is if Shadow knew she was planning to earn money this way. She had by human standards, super strength, invulnerability, and energy blast abilities.

Shadow entered the arena, his heart more or less racing, he had some tough opponents here that he's fought before he only wondered who he would be fighting first. The gate on the opposing side opened and out came roughly twenty men.

"You guys look familiar" Shadow called a little more confused than anything else.

"You better remember us, you broke my nose last time" one of the men on the opposing sides replied rather vehemently.

"Oh yeah, I remember you guys, the seventh floor pansies." Shadow said quickly thumbing his nose at them.

"YOU!" The man cried obviously enraged by Shadow's taunt.

Shadow quickly readied himself as the twenty men charged him, Shadow quickly blocked a few punches as he quickly got surrounded. Ducking and weaving, Shadow with almost artistic grace danced around the men punching and kicking in retaliation knocking down a few here and a few there.

"He told you not to register didn't he" Blackfire spun around hearing Stoneman's voice.

"Yeah he did" Blackfire answered. "Why shouldn't I join?"

"The problem isn't your strength or your resilience, many of the people down here have no hesitation of killing or severely injuring others. Plus people here have powers as well that range from simple mind reading to elemental control to even energy control" Stoneman stated.

Blackfire quickly realized that it wasn't that shadow more or less feared for her safety she had absolutely no idea what she was getting into, up until this point she thought the vast majority of people here were regular people with no powers or anything.

Shadow knocked down two others as the remaining ten men tried fruitlessly to overwhelm him.

"There's also rules to this arena" Stoneman stated. This shocked Blackfire even more as she thought that this was a no rules arena.

"There are only a couple simple rules. First you must fight on even terms with the lesser abled opponent. Second all power usage must be kept within the arena. Thirdly only one challenger or one team of challengers at a time" Stoneman answered.

So basically she wouldn't be a good match against regular people so she'd have to fight power users, since Shadow's power doesn't make him inherently stronger or more durable, thus he's able to fight regular people, and fight power users.

Shadow quickly finished off the last guy, only to have the announcer quickly announce another fighter, only this time it was a power user. A young man leapt past the opened gate and immediately shot a small red energy bolt at Shadow who easily redirected it into the ground. Shadow quickly closed the distance between him and the other power user and started exchanging blows with the man.

Blackfire quickly looked at Shadow fighting and the floor with the floor with the registration desk. She was still seriously contemplating registering but if there is something else that she missed that she would be better off knowing then she should wait to see.

Shadow quickly blocked another energized punch from his new opponent, only for Shadow to wind up his free arm for a punch. The man quickly made and effort to block Shadow's ready arm, however from outside the man's attention area Shadow brought up his blocking hand and struck the man across the face, making the man stagger enough for Shadow to charge up with ready arm with his shadow powers, and struck the man squarely in the chest. The man hit the ground and didn't get back up.

"_That's it, that's the second challenger, now on to the, hey, wait what the…Hey Shadow" _The announcer was about to announce the next person but was interrupted and then someone new was talking on the speaker. _"I sure hope you remember me, you nearly killed me last time"_

"A mistake I won't make twice" Shadow whispered to himself obviously remembering the voice.

"_I'm glad you do remember me cause this time I'm going to ensure that you don't survive"_ the voice cried over the microphone.

Everyone watched as the gates on the opposing side opened letting a hundred maybe even more people spill out onto the arena.

"That's not good" Stoneman said quietly. Blackfire suddenly made a decision and ran off. "Where is she going?" Stoneman wondered to himself turning back to Shadow.

"_Well what are you all waiting for?" _ the voice on the speaker cried. _"Get Him_!"

The crowd charged Shadow, only Shadow charged right back at them. Like a game of football where two sides were about to clash only one side had one player. Shadow punched the first guy to come across him, ducking another strike, and dodging energy bolts fired from seemingly everywhere.

Shadow took a quick step back to see several more people rush him a variety of weapons drawn all aiming to take his life. Shadow only smiled sadistically as if he was beginning to enjoy this, two black blades stretched out from his wrists, and Shadow began his counter assault on the crowd of weapon users. Killing two and severely injuring a third Shadow then switched from wrist blades to two small dark orbs which he shot at the larger crowd of challengers.

The Orbs exploded in the crowd of challengers leaving plenty of time for Shadow do deal with a scattered group of challengers. Expertly dodging their weapons and attacks, Shadow erected his wrist blades once again and began slashing away. After dealing with the scattered group of challengers Shadow turned to see tens more challengers quickly descend on him. Bracing himself for the overwhelming number of challengers Shadow only could cross his arms and wait.

BOOM!

Something quickly dropped in the middle of the crowd and sent almost everyone flying. A purplish aura expanded and then faded as the effects of the powerful impact subsided. As the dust cleared Blackfire emerged from the small crater.

"I thought I told you not to get involved" Shadow called his face only showing mild surprise to Blackfire's actions.

"What? And let you have all the fun and the money, no way" Blackfire replied playfully.

"Well I hope you're ready for this then" Shadow said as he quickly ducked an attack and lashed back at the attacker.

"I'm good besides, since all the rules have been thrown out the window at this point I doubt we'll be earning anything" Blackfire replied punching two men at once taking her place near Shadow as they fought off the now dwindling horde of challengers.

Shadow knocked out a few and then stabbed a few others, Blackfire took out a few with star bolts while punching and kicking others away.

"What is this!?" a cry came from the opposing gate.

A young man with dark hair and yellow eyes, he seemed incredibly shocked as he walked onto the field. "You should be near death by now" the man cried pointing at Shadow.

"Yeah well luckily I had some back up this time" Shadow said gesturing to Blackfire.

"You" the man said growling at Blackfire. "I'll get you next" the man growled pointing at Blackfire.

"You should be worried about me first" Shadow said.

The man was in for a surprise as Shadow had immediately appeared behind him with one of his wrist blades already striking.

SLISH!

The man barely had time to react as Shadow's wrist blade pierced his heart, the man only grunted as he felt his lift quickly slipping away.

"I told you, that I won't make that same mistake twice" Shadow said as he pulled the blade out. The man dropped to the floor blood beginning to quickly pool around his body.

"Who was that?" Blackfire asked.

"A fool who thought he was going to make a name of himself by defeating me" Shadow said.

"And what were his powers?" Blackfire asked wondering if he even had any at all.

"He could only read minds, but he could only read one person's at a time, and they had to be within eye sight" Shadow answered.

"You get heckled by a bunch of weaklings like this a lot?" Blackfire asked.

"No not really" Shadow answered.

"Then why did this happen?" Blackfire asked.

"Cause the stronger fighters in the past placed a bounty on me to whoever is able to defeat me" Shadow answered again.

"Why?" Blackfire asked.

"Cause I made enemies" Shadow answered. Both Shadow and Blackfire turned to see the rest of the standing challengers staring fearfully at the two man team that Blackfire and Shadow now made up, the challengers then quickly looked at each other, then ran for their lives.

"So who put the bounty on you this time?" Blackfire asked.

"Probably one of my older rivals still bearing a grudge" Shadow thought.

"That would be incorrect Shadow" a dark metallic voice replied.

Shadow and Blackfire looked up to see a man in a mostly black suit with a Black and Orange mask with only one eye showing.

"As this would be the first time we have met, I am neither holding a grudge, nor a rival" the man said.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of being targeted by the one and only Deathstroke?" Shadow asked in a slightly mocking tone coupled with a slight bow.

"Please don't pretend to respect me, or be lesser than me Shadow" Deathstroke replied. "As far as skills go you could probably over power me in seconds if not with your martial art skills then with your shadow powers"

"My question still stands, what does the world's famous Underworld assassin want with me?" Shadow asked.

"First you can refer to me as Slade while in Jump City" Slade began. "Second, I heard that you have crossed the Justice League and the Teen Titans and still managed to avoid capture while going toe to toe with both at the same time"

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear" Shadow replied suspicion evident in his voice causing Blackfire to take some shelter behind Shadow in case things got hot between the two.

"I believe I just saw you take out roughly two hundred challengers of varying abilities" Slade explained.

"But I needed help part way through" Shadow said, making Blackfire feel a little better about herself.

"There's no need to lie Shadow, even if Blackfire didn't come, you still would have been able to take out all those challengers" Slade countered.

"What makes you believe that?" Shadow challenged.

"I know of your powers, what your able to do and what you're not able to do at least for the most part. Cause I'm sure that there are secrets to your powers that not even I'm privy to." Slade began to explain. "But your able to become intangible for a short period of time, if not that, then your powers allow you to fly and or dash at incredible speeds, no matter how many of them there were you still would have out maneuvered them and been able to take them out. Albeit much more slowly than what actually happened, and to some great personal pain through Gaia's Effect"

"So you're aware of Gaia's Effect" Shadow said his suspicion only increasing.

"What's Gaia's Effect?" Blackfire asked.

"It's when Shadow's powers begin to strain his body to the point of doing damage to himself, if overdone it can shorten his life span, cause permanent or long lasting effects, or it can kill him" Slade explained to Blackfire. "But thankfully getting to any of those points is difficult to reach without the fight having already come to an end"

"Thank-you" Shadow exclaimed heatedly not happy about Slade just citing his powers double-edged sword concept to Blackfire and possibly the entire stadium. "Again what is it you want?"

"I have just recently earned myself a position in the crosshairs of a recently recovered Batman" Slade explained. "And since I'm consistently tracked and hunted by the Teen Titans as well, I figured we could come to a sort of alliance. I need a team to help me fend off the Teen Titans, and you need someone who's experienced with dealing with the Justice League and it's members. So I figured win-win"

"I get the feeling that there's more than what your telling me" Shadow stated.

"Yes, the Teen Titans have recently received a helper of the Light Justice Society, I believe you know whom they sent?" Slade asked.

"Aldomea" Shadow answered.

"Correct, which is why many of the villians who haunt the streets of Jump City have come here to seek shelter, and which is why it's been rather quiet around Jump City" Slade stated.

"And I assume Batman is going to be arriving in Jump City sooner or later, which is the core reason why you're coming to me with this alliance, cause you can't escape the Dark Knight this time and deal with the Teen Titans all at once, and with Aldomea now in the picture it just makes any operation rather impossible" Shadow said now beginning to understand why Slade was coming to him.

"Correct again, but even just you and me, and even if Blackfire were to join it wouldn't be enough" Slade added.

"So what do you suggest?" Shadow asked.

"I suggest we start our own little League of sorts" Slade suggested. "But for that we need a bigger team, and I know who to ask, and were to start"

"I'm starting to like where this is going, but understand that I'm not a lackey or a dog that barks when called, I'm willing to help but as long as it doesn't get in the way of my goals then we won't have any problems" Shadow said laying out his conditions.

"I would have expected no less from you" Slade said happily holding out his hand.

Shadow took Slade's hand and shook on their new found agreement. Slade then quickly turned to Blackfire.

"What about you?" Slade asked. "Will you join us as well?"

Blackfire quickly thought about this. Teaming up wasn't her style, in fact she almost avoided it cause she didn't get along well with others. But she knew she wouldn't be able to leave this planet without running straight into the waiting arms of the Light Justice Society, and she wouldn't be able to survive on Earth on her own without getting captured and then handed over the Light Justice Society, which only left her with one choice.

"I'll join, but I'll only follow Shadow" Blackfire said praying that she wasn't blushing or sending any misunderstandings. "Shadow saved my life and I owe him as much, and as such Shadow is the one I will follow and work with since I have no other goals on Earth"

"That's fine" Slade answered. "Then we are agreed"

**Meanwhile at the Titans Tower**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE COMING TO JUMP CITY!?" Robin cried to the video monitor where Batman stood on the screen his stoic expressions not flinching in the least.

"I've been hunting Deathstroke for some time as he operated in Gotham but I have reason to believe he's now in Jump City, and with you guys trying to deal with the Dark Rogue and Blackfire I'm coming to lighten the load as it were" Batman explained.

"I don't have a say in this do I?" Robin asked bitterness evident in his voice.

"Sadly no, cause if Deathstroke seeks out the Dark Rogue, you're going to need me" Batman stated to a now shocked Robin.

CHAPTER END!

OMG! I haven't written in so long, so sorry if this chapter doesn't quite flow like it should, I tried my best XD. Anyway if anyone has any suggestions for the story don't hesitate to let me know, cause I'm suffering from writers block right now.

Other than that Please Review!


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